Pickling ram. Dried ram - a favorite home delicacy

Taranka is a delicious fish. It is especially good when dried. But first, the product must be properly salted. How to do it? Of course, there are some nuances, but everything is incredibly simple. Let's look at the available options.

How to properly prepare the ram for salting?

It is best to salt freshly caught fish. However, this is not always possible, so you can also use a frozen product, which you first defrost at room temperature. At this point all preparatory work is completed. There is no need to wash, peel or gut anything.

How to salt the taranka correctly?

There are several ways to salt the battering ram. Let's go into detail.

Dry method of salting taranka

In this case, there are two options. They are both simple. So choose which one you like best. So:

Option #1

Take the prepared fish and rub it with salt from the tail to the head. Try to let the husks rise. Fill the ram's mouth and gills with salt. After this, string the carcasses onto a thick thread or wire and hang them in the shade in a draft. This is how we salt and dry at the same time. The fish should hang in this state for at least 2 days.

Option No. 2

Prepare deep enamel or glass dishes. Wash and dry the container. Now add a little (25 g) salt to the bottom. Lay out the battering ram in one layer. Next is salt. Next is the fish. And so on until the main product runs out. As for the ratio of fish and salt: from 1:0.1 to 1:1. It all depends on the time of year and conditions. If you can put the prepared semi-finished product in the refrigerator, then add less salt. And if it’s summer and you don’t have a cool place, then sprinkle 1:1. After this, put pressure on top and take out the fish after 1-2 days. Then wash off the salt. You can soak the battering ram a little. And again, hang it in the shade in a draft.

Wet method of salting taranka

There is also nothing complicated in this method of salting fish. Just dilute water with salt in a ratio of 1: 0.1. Now pour over the prepared fish until it is completely covered. Press down on top with something so that the carcasses do not float up. Keep the ram in brine for 2-3 days. Then take it out (you can soak it for 20-30 minutes in cold water) and hang it up in the same way as in other cases.

Of course, you can add a variety of spices to salt. For every kilogram of fish, take about 1 tablespoon of chopped spices. Add whatever you like.

Cooking secrets

The aromatic and tasty fish taranka (ram, ram) from the carp family has always been popular in the south of Russia and Ukraine - it was dried and served with beer. Subsequently, any dried fish, such as roach and roach, began to be called ram. Dried taranka was the most accessible and cheapest snack in Rus', so it was very popular. All residents of Kuban and the Azov region know how to make ram: first, the fish is salted and then dried, as a result of which it acquires a special spicy taste and aroma. You won't find a better snack to go with beer!

How to cook ram: selecting and processing fish

Since ram is now called any dried meat, for this dish you can take not only ram, roach or roach. Other varieties of fish are also suitable - bream, white bream, saberfish, pike, crucian carp, rudd, ruff and gudgeon. Very tasty ram is obtained from blue bream, silver bream, whitefish, womer, perch and goby. The fish should be of medium fat content and small in size, otherwise it will not be salted and will spoil. The fattest fish are bream, vomer and sabrefish have a medium fat content, ruff is very tender and has few bones, dried perch is sweetish, and pike is richly tart and piquant.

It is not necessary to process the fish in a special way to salt the ram - it is enough to rinse it well and remove the entrails if the fish is small. Some gourmets like ungutted ram - everyone has their own tastes. However, in the summer, when the inhabitants of rivers and lakes feed on greens and microorganisms, it is better to gut even small fish, otherwise an unpleasant odor will appear during the drying process, and the taste of such ram will be bitter. By the way, it is also better to remove the gills - they can ruin the taste of the fish. How to salt the ram if you still decide to leave the insides? To do this, before salting, pour a saturated salt solution into the throat of the fish - for this reason, many people prefer to salt the ram live. The fish opens its mouth and swallows the brine, which makes it possible to properly salt the internal organs.

First, the fish is salted and then dried. How to pickle taranka at home? There are different recipes for salting ram, but usually they use two methods - wet and dry. The wet method is suitable for small fish, the dry method is suitable for large fish weighing more than 1 kg.

Wet salting of fish

According to this recipe, the ram is salted in a fairly concentrated brine, and the degree of salt concentration is checked with a raw egg - it should float to the surface. A strong solution for salting fish is called brine, and the fish is kept in it for about 3-4 days, and so that it does not float and is salted evenly, it is covered with a metal mesh on top or a grate is placed on which a load is placed. The bucket, basin or pan where the ram is salted should be placed in a cold place so that the fish does not spoil. For wet salting, fish weighing less than 0.5 kg is usually taken. In general, the question of how much to salt the ram depends on the size of the fish - the larger it is, the longer the salting process will be.

After this, the salted fish is washed well and soaked in fresh water - small fish for 30 minutes, and large fish for several hours. In this case, it is recommended to change the water several times, and after the first change of water, let the fish lie in the air, come to its senses and allow the salt to be evenly distributed in the tissues. Then you can put it in the water again, and when the fish starts to float, the soaking process can be considered complete. Don't worry about how to salt the ram without oversalting it - it is believed that it will absorb as much salt as needed. Salted and soaked fish becomes slightly transparent and acquires a light amber hue.

How to make taranka correctly: dry salting method

First, rub the fish well with salt, pour salt into the belly, into the cut on the back and into the gills, if you decide not to remove them. The carcass is pierced with a fork or knife and salt is rubbed into the holes. Pour about 0.5 cm of salt into a large stainless steel metal dish, place the ram in dense rows with the back facing down and sprinkle generously with salt on top to create a real salt layer 1 cm thick. For 1 kg of fish, approximately 250 g of salt are required.

Make another layer, and then place a plate smaller than a pan or a wooden board on top - this is necessary to provide fresh air to the fish. Place a pressure on the lid and put the fish in a cold place, such as a refrigerator, cellar or balcony. At the same time, make sure that the fish does not get exposed to sunlight. By the way, at first it is better to apply a little pressure, after about 6-7 hours you can increase it - this way the fish will be salted evenly. It is interesting that in Rus', in villages, fish was salted in a wooden box with holes, which was placed in a spacious container.

During the salting process, liquid is formed that will have to be drained, and the salting time depends on the size of the battering ram. A fish weighing up to 100 g is salted for 1-2 days, a medium-sized fish weighing 600-800 g is enough for 3-4 days, and large fish will need from 5 to 14 days until completely salted. As soon as the ram stops releasing juice, it is ready, but first it should be washed well and soaked in cold water for 2 hours, then kept in vinegar water for an hour - take about 50 ml of vinegar per bucket of water. This is done to prevent the proliferation of pathogenic microorganisms, which cause the ram to deteriorate very quickly.

How to dry ram correctly

Make a double thread and string the fish on it at a distance of at least 7 cm from each other, passing it through the eyes so that the valuable fat and brine do not flow out through the mouth, but remain inside. Some fishermen dry the ram on hooks, and place the small fish on a wooden surface and turn it over as it dries. This kind of ram turns out to be especially tasty, tender and rich. Fish “garlands” should be hung in a well-ventilated place, but in the shade - in the attic or on the balcony, making sure there are no insects. By the way, soaking in vinegar water is a reliable preventive measure against flies, because the smell of vinegar repels them. If flies land on your fish, it is best to discard it immediately as they may lay eggs on it. For more reliable protection against insects, it is better to put together a special box for drying fish and cover it with a fine mesh.

Many people dry fish in Isidri dryers - in this case, you need to slightly open the ram's gills (if they have not been removed), trim the belly and secure it in the open form with toothpicks.

After 3 days it can be considered dried. If you want dried ram, wait 2 weeks. Properly dried ram is neither soft nor hard, has a pleasant taste and smell, has a reddish-amber hue without yellow spots, and glows slightly in the light. Fish salted wet becomes more juicy after drying, while salting without water produces drier fish.

How to make ram delicious: secrets of gourmets

For salting, use coarse salt, which has the ability to draw moisture from the fish. The less liquid there is in the fish, the faster it will dry out and be more tasty. In addition, fine salt forms a crust on the surface of the carcass and prevents the fish from becoming salty.
Adding a small amount of sugar to the brine makes the fish very tender, piquant and tasty.
How much weight should be pressed when salting? Typically a weight of 3-20 kg is placed, depending on the size of the fish and personal preference. If you salt fish in the summer, cover it with cloth or gauze to prevent insects from getting inside.
If you want the fish to dry well, cut it slightly after salting. This applies mainly to large fish, because small fish dry out much faster.
During dry salting, many housewives drain the brine from a pan or bucket manually, which is not very convenient. The ideal option is to drill holes in the bottom of the dish, and then the liquid will drain on its own. Then this dish can always be used for salting fish.
If you dry out the ram, moisten it with water and wrap it in parchment for 2 days, periodically moistening the fish. Fish that is too dry can be ground to the consistency of flour and sprinkled on salads, soups and main courses.

We store the battering ram correctly

Dried taranka can be stored for up to 4 months if it is prepared according to all the rules. You can put it in layers in sterilized jars, roll up the lid and put it in the cellar - this way it will remain fresh for up to 10 months. Often the fish is kept in a basket, bag, or wrapped in parchment paper, but dried fish only feels good in a cool place in a plastic bag or foil, and it has a shorter shelf life. In the refrigerator, the ram is stored in the freshness zone - for this, the fish is greased with olive oil and placed in glass jars. You should not keep salted fish in the air for a long time, because fish oil oxidizes and the ram acquires a not very pleasant taste. At low humidity, the fish becomes moldy, at high humidity it dries out, so ideal storage conditions are 80% humidity and a temperature of 3-8 °C. In kraft paper, covered with polyethylene on one side, the batter is stored for 8-10 months.

Taranka is a completely dietary and very healthy product, containing protein, valuable fish oil, iodine, chromium and many other useful substances. Dried fish protein ensures proper metabolism, and omega-3 fatty acids protect against cancer, stroke and heart attack. Taranka makes incredibly tasty soups and snacks. If you consider that the calorie content of taranka is only 88 calories, you can afford to eat it every day without fear for your figure!

It is better to choose a container with slots, since over time the fish will begin to secrete juices that need to “go” somewhere.

We place the box with fish in a cold room and keep it for at least 5-10 days (depending on the size of the carcasses).

Wet Ambassador

How to salt ram at home if you want it to remain juicy? Then use the technology of wet salting of fish. All preparations are identical to the dry method, except for the container in which the fish will be stored. There should be no holes in it so that the juice released from the fish does not go away.

You can add a little sugar to the brine, then the taste of the fish will be more tender.

Oppression will be required again. In a day or two, tuzluk (fish brine) will appear. The ram will be salted in about a week or a week and a half. Then it should be removed from the brine, washed, dried and placed in some kind of storage container.

Today we no longer reuse brine, but in the old days brine was used several times in fishing areas.

Drying and drying fish

Salting ram at home can be done for future use: ram is dried and dried. How to salt ram is described above, now let’s consider the question of whether such technologies for additional processing of the product are applicable to such fish.

We wash the salted fish and soak it in clean water for a couple of hours. We string the fish carcasses in the tail area on a wire and hang them in a well-ventilated place. Direct sunlight is contraindicated for drying. Dried fish is moister than completely dried fish and will be ready in about a week.

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Ram - a type of roach - has minor differences: fine scales, fewer rays in the lower fin. Usually sold dried in retail outlets. It is a favorite fish for the Kuban people, the peoples of the Don and Azov regions. Ram is the name given to mixed species of different fish breeds. The population of the Don region considers Volga dried roach to be ram.

Often rams, rams, rams are called any dried and dried fish from the carp family: ram itself, roach, roach. Taranka is prepared from gobies, pike, crucian carp, and bream.

Dried taranka (snek) is a traditional Russian snack for beer lovers and lovers of dried fish.

Dried ram: cooking at home

The ram is slightly smaller than a roach, wider in shape, similar to a young bream. It is caught in the spring for spawning, and fishermen immediately make dried reserves for the whole year. Much tastier are the large individuals that eat mollusks - dracena.

For drying, it is better to take large fish, which have more fat. When drying, the carcasses are dehydrated, biochemical processes occur in the meat, thanks to which the ram ripens, acquires a unique aroma and taste, and turns into a real delicacy. It is good without anything, by itself, and does not require any heat treatment.

Easy to prepare.

What does real dried ram, called vyalenka, look like?

The fish is completely dry to the touch - all the fat is inside.
The scales are clean and pleasantly shiny.
Carcasses look transparent in the light, the skeleton is clearly visible.
The meat is dense, but not tough, pleasantly fibrous.
My mouth is watering at the sight of such a seductive fish.
The taste is incomparable.
It can be stored for several months without deteriorating in taste or appearance - as if it had just been taken out of the dryer.

The fish has an excellent presentation:

How to cook dried ram

Recipe: on 1 kg fresh ram(medium carcasses 200-250 grams) at least 0.5 packs of salt. Larger specimens are kept in a saturated solution - brine. The solution is saturated with salt so that raw potatoes float in it. Carcasses up to 250 g are not gutted before drying. Large fish are freed from giblets.

The generally accepted method of drying all carp fish:

wiping carcasses,
Sprinkling tightly packed layers of fish with salt or pouring brine,
exposure under pressure for several days, depending on the size of the fish.
soaking, getting rid of excess salt,
hanging to dry.

All methods of soaking and drying are detailed. They are well suited for drying ram.

When wet salting, the fish is dipped in bunches into the brine. When it starts to peek out, more salt is added to it. Small rams are kept for a couple of days, large fish - five to six. The fish in the brine is often stirred so that the brine evenly covers all the carcasses.

There is a lot of debate about how to hang fish when drying: by the head or tail. You should not catch it by the gills or lips, it is better to pierce it through the eyes. Hanging by the tail is more difficult, but in this case the saline solution flows out through the mouth faster, excess salt accumulates under the gills, and flies cannot lay eggs there.

When drying, careless owners see salt appear on the scales, the fish tastes unpleasant, quickly rusts, and some fish are spoiled by insects. The fat rendered from the heat quickly goes rancid, and the fish acquires an unpleasant bitterness.

Winter preparation of dried ram according to Astrakhan recipes

Avid fishermen keep wooden barrels in their basements, into which brine is poured for salting fish. Spring and autumn catches are placed in them. And they are stored in this form until the dry winter cold. In winter, the ram is taken out of the brine, soaked, hung on the balcony or outside the windows, kept in light frost for a couple of weeks.

In the cold, the fish does not spoil, the fat remains in the carcasses, and there are no insects. Drying is more convenient in winter; fish is stored well for a whole year in a cool place. Before use, the bunch is warmed in the house. The surplus can be sold. Hermetically sealed dried ram is stored for 10 months.

About the benefits of ram dried at home

Sun-dried fish contain Omega 3 fatty acids. This means that ram is useful as a preventive product for:

cancer diseases,
heart disease - heart attack.
senile dementia,
insufficiency and cerebrovascular accident - stroke.

With a low calorie content (88 kcal), dried ram contains a high percentage of protein, a sufficient amount of fat and carbohydrates. Microelements useful for life: fluorine, chromium, magnesium, iron, molybdenum improve the effective functioning of the brain, heart, and other organs. Iodine supports the functioning of the thyroid gland. Protein regulates metabolism. The fat present in fish promotes rapid clotting of blood cells and lowers “bad” cholesterol. Useful vitamins A, B, E support the vitality of the body.

Prepare dried ram for future use!

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How to cook ram: selecting and processing fish

Since ram is now called any dried fish, for this dish you can take not only ram, roach or roach. Other varieties of fish are also suitable - bream, white bream, sabrefish, pike, crucian carp, rudd, ruff and gudgeon. Very tasty ram is obtained from blue bream, silver bream, whitefish, womer, perch and goby. The fish should be of medium fat content and small in size, otherwise it will not be salted and will spoil. The fattest fish are bream, vomer and sabrefish have a medium fat content, ruff is very tender and has few bones, dried perch is sweetish, and pike is richly tart and piquant.

First, the fish is salted and then dried. How to pickle taranka at home? There are different recipes for salting rama, but usually they use two methods - wet and dry. The wet method is suitable for small fish, the dry method is suitable for large fish weighing more than 1 kg.

Wet salting of fish

How to make taranka correctly: dry salting method

Make another layer, and then place a plate smaller than a pan or a wooden board on top - this is necessary to provide fresh air to the fish. Place a pressure on the lid and put the fish in a cold place, such as a refrigerator, cellar or balcony. At the same time, make sure that the fish does not get exposed to sunlight. By the way, at first it is better to apply a little pressure; after about 6–7 hours it can be increased - this way the fish will be salted evenly. It is interesting that in Rus', in villages, fish was salted in a wooden box with holes, which was placed in a spacious container.

How to dry ram correctly

Many people dry fish in Isidri dryers - in this case, you need to slightly open the ram's gills (if they have not been removed), trim the belly and secure it in the open form with toothpicks.

After 3 days, the fish can be considered dried. If you want dried ram, wait 2 weeks. Properly dried ram is neither soft nor hard, has a pleasant taste and smell, has a reddish-amber hue without yellow spots, and glows slightly in the light. Fish salted wet becomes more juicy after drying, while salting without water produces drier fish.

How to make ram delicious: secrets of gourmets

For salting, use coarse salt, which has the ability to draw moisture from the fish. The less liquid there is in the fish, the faster it will dry out and be more tasty. In addition, fine salt forms a crust on the surface of the carcass and prevents the fish from becoming salty.
Adding a small amount of sugar to the brine makes the fish very tender, piquant and tasty.
How much weight should be pressed when salting? Typically a weight of 3–20 kg is placed, depending on the size of the fish and personal preference. If you salt fish in the summer, cover it with cloth or gauze to prevent insects from getting inside.
If you want the fish to dry well, cut it slightly after salting. This applies mainly to large fish, because small fish dry out much faster.
During dry salting, many housewives drain the brine from a pan or bucket manually, which is not very convenient. The ideal option is to drill holes in the bottom of the dish, and then the liquid will drain on its own. Then this dish can always be used for salting fish.
If you dry out the ram, moisten it with water and wrap it in parchment for 2 days, periodically moistening the fish. Fish that is too dry can be ground to the consistency of flour and sprinkled on salads, soups and main courses.

We store the battering ram correctly

Dried taranka can be stored for up to 4 months if it is prepared according to all the rules. You can put it in layers in sterilized jars, roll up the lid and put it in the cellar - this way it will remain fresh for up to 10 months. Often the fish is kept in a basket, bag, or wrapped in parchment paper, but dried fish only feels good in a cool place in a plastic bag or foil, and it has a shorter shelf life. In the refrigerator, the ram is stored in the freshness zone - for this, the fish is greased with olive oil and placed in glass jars. You should not keep salted fish in the air for a long time, because fish oil oxidizes and the ram acquires a not very pleasant taste. At low humidity, the fish becomes moldy, at high humidity it dries out, so ideal storage conditions are 80% humidity and a temperature of 3–8 °C. In kraft paper, coated on one side with polyethylene, the ram is stored for 8–10 months.